Manulife Travel Insurance Reviews

I had a question about the travel insurance questionnaire. When you call the number provided online, you cannot hold to speak to an agent but are told you will get a callback as soon as an agent is available. It's been 8 days from my first call and 7 days from my second call. Are all the agents on vacation? How am I supposed to get an answer to my question?

My 16-year-old son suffered extensive ankle damage from a sports injury while on athletic scholarship in September 2023 while in the US. We purchased the plan recommended to us by our broker as one that is marketed to international athletes, thinking that it would protect our family - we were so wrong.

After the injury, as you're supposed to, I contacted the insurance company rather than allow the ER doctors to perform surgery straight away (they reset the leg immediately). I drove the 9 hours to my son, and then we waited an additional five days for Manulife to deny surgery in the US against the recommendation of the orthopedic surgeon who determined surgery needed to be completed asap. The entire time I was in the US, I had to act as a liaison between Manulife/GlobalExcel and the various doctors and medical professionals since they did not source any documentation themselves. My best guess is that I spent a minimum of three hours per day on the phone trying to get approval for surgery rather than spending time with my son. Of course, you speak with a different person almost every time you call, and you have to retell your story over and over because even though you have a case manager, you will likely not speak with them...

After waiting almost a week for what I had been assured over the phone would be approval for my son's very necessary surgery, the 'experts' at Manulife chose to medically evacuate my son back to Canada, where he waited an additional two days for surgery.

We will never know the full impact of Manulife/GlobalExcel's failure to make and communicate a timely decision.

Most recently in trying to recoup my personal expenses while I waited almost a week for Manulife/GlobalExcel to make a decision regarding the surgery - expenses listed as eligible for coverage under my policy, my expenses were denied in April by Claim Assessor who I can't speak to because "assessors don't have phones". When I asked for the assessor to call me, I was told it is policy that I cannot speak with them. Anyways - I played administrator again and sent additional documentation to satisfy the piece of the policy that the assessor used to deny our claim and was told over the phone that the claim was approved, and I was sent a form to provide my payment information.

I'm actually on hold with Manulife/GlobalExcel as I type this... I've been on hold about 30 minutes with an administrator I know won't be able to help me get answers as to why I haven't seen payment almost a year after the claim was started, in spite of providing them with everything they've asked for...

There is so much more to my experience that I could write a novel around how many times this company provided subpar service, but my phone call with this dreadful company has since ended and I've proofread my review and am moving on until their Supervisor gives me a call back in the next 24–48 hours. This will be the third time a Supervisor will reach out, so I'm not holding my breath for resolution.

What a joke this company is... do your family a favour and steer clear!

The coverage is horrible, the customer service is your worst nightmare, they don't know what they are doing and because it is farmed out of country they really don't care. Rude, unaware employees making decisions based on their untrained knowledge and text book replies.

Would not recommend this travel insurance and only added it on to my existing plan because I thought I would be given better service because of my history with Manulife. I guess that makes me naïve.

Save yourself the headache and look for a more trustworthy/knowledgeable provider before you travel.

Very poor customer service, long review time, long waiting time on the phone, and incompetent staff...

I waited an hour and 15 minutes to talk to someone who knew very little about their policies. I was appalled by the lack of knowledge of their employees and by their travel plan options. I had to let an employee know over the phone today that I might not be covered if a travel advisory to "avoid all travel" happened after he told me I would definitely be covered under the all-inclusive plan. AND I only knew this because someone had mentioned it to me last week. The same employee then let me know later that anything related to Covid 19 before I left on my trip would not be covered under any of your policies. 
If I hadn't looked up anything myself beforehand - I would have been buying a policy and paying over $300 for a policy that would do very little for me. They were also rude to me by the end of the recorded phone call. 
Furthermore, it is untenable that if I was buying the pandemic travel plan - that if I tested positive just before my trip - any cancellation of my trip would not be covered. Online according to their multi-trip all-inclusive policy legally it would be up in the air whether or not a change of travel advisory status is foreseen. Especially when all the countries I'm planning to travel to are currently under "exercise normal precautions".  BUT they have said they will not cover anything Covid related before departure, including if you tested positive before your flight at a random check. I just think that if they are offering a Covid 19 Pandemic-specific policy without offering cancellation if you happen to test positive just before you leave for a trip that is very misleading.

I have purchased Manulife travel insurance multiple times for short out-of-country trips to cover our adult children when they have accompanied my husband and me. Since they have never needed to make a claim I was not aware they are not available to contact if the need arises. On his current trip to the US, my son decided to extend his stay. He was eligible to extend his policy but the option is unavailable online and multiple attempts to contact Manulife by phone and email were ignored. In fact, he was disconnected multiple times on multiple days when he attempted. This is the same number one calls for claim assistance! Their slick, quick site to purchase insurance works well but they provide nothing but a false sense of security.

I tried to contact Manulife about my insurance policy over the phone while on my trip and was hung up on twice after being on hold for over two hours. I emailed them about this and they never responded. I’ll never use Manulife for travel insurance ever again, and I’d advise anyone against ever using them.

2 hours wait for a quotation - no answer yet!